The head of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation has indicated the “green" bank could become a key lender to ­companies seeking to qualify under the Coalition’s Direct Action plans.

The government recently indicated it would use its ministerial powers to order the corporation to swing away from lending to wind farms in favour of Direct Action projects such as leasing for solar water system.

“We’re looking forward to helping," chief executive
Oliver Yates
told The Australian Financial Review in an interview. “It will be a challenge because direct action will require people to undertake to commit to those projects and finance them up-front and they won’t get paid until such time as they deliver the emissions.

“So someone is going to have to do the technical expertise and make the investment and lend to these participants . . . we think we can play a very meaningful role in that."

Speaking publicly for the first time since the Palmer United Party last month forced the Coalition to scrap its plans to shutter the 12-month-old corporation, Mr Yates said the renewable energy development bank will become a key source of stability and funding for the industry, adding the need for a national “green" bank had become more critical than ever.

“People are going to be nervous because we’ve seen so much volatility that even if the [Coalition’s $2.55 billion emissions reduction fund] gets up, well, is the ERF going to be there in three years time or two years?" Mr Yates said.

“It’s a concern that people have got, so certainty is certainly the biggest thing that people are after."

In the interview, Mr Yates said the $10 billion corporation had been “getting on with the job" of lending to new energy projects despite its uncertain political future; that it remained determined to vacate the field as and when private lenders moved into the field; and that it has been generating a profit for the government while delivering lower emissions technologies.

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Mr Yates said around half the $700 million invested across dozens of projects since July 2013 would qualify as direct action projects.

Mr Yates said “from day one" the Clean Energy Finance Corporation had been working in an environment of uncertainty, yet was acting as a catalyst for projects such as a waste gasification plant in the ­Pilbara and a solar thermal greenhouse in South Australia. “We are 12 months into this journey and every month that goes past I am more and more convinced that the role that we play is fundamentally critical in ­accelerating the opportunities that Australian industry and the Australian economy can capture whilst we’re making this transition from one energy system towards another energy ­system," he said.

Despite being threatened with extinction, the 50-staff strong corporation has made 10 investments since the September election of the Abbott government, taking its total direct investments to 40, with another 25 joint-ventures. “We have just been getting on with the job," said Mr Yates, a former Macquarie banker. “We focused on getting our transactions done and really hoped that people would see what the thing is, why it makes sense, and we would have a future."

Mr Yates, who alongside chairman
Jillian Broadbent
, have publicly argued in favour of retaining the corporation, said many governments in countries that compete with Australian ­companies had similar funds.

“I think if people look at the pipeline of projects that we have and the projects that we’ve done and they look at the costs involved to the tax-payer."